ADMIRABLY COMBINED VALUE
Firstly, it took me absolutely ages to come up with that acronym.
I almost think I could stop this blog right here and right now, exclaiming “Mission Accomplished!” for the amount of time that took me. Clearly I won’t be winning any acronym type game shows in the near future.
Anyway, let’s focus shall we?
ACV, aka Apple Cider Vinegar does truly have great properties for hair - and for our general health. As you may have correctly guessed from its name, ACV is made from the fermenting of apple cider resulting in a vinegar that contains lactic, citric and malic acids. And it’s this acidic content that is just so greatly exciting.
As with the best things in life, it is just so simple, but yet so effective!
It’s known that the correct pH balance for hair ranges from 4.5 to 5.5. “pH” stands for the “Potential/Power of Hydrogen” and is the scale used in chemistry to measure the acidity or alkali of any aqueous solution (aqueous meaning dissolved in water). Just in case you wanted to bowl anyone over with your vast knowledge of all things that should be known, it was first introduced by a Danish chemist, Soren Peder Lauritz Sorensen in 1909.
Too much information?
Yeah, I thought so too…!!!
The pH of ACV is 2.9, which is too acidic to be used neat, but dilute it with water and your hair will be loving you! Just by-the-by, water has a neutral pH of 7.0, and will therefore bring up the overall pH of the solution closer to the level that your hair will prefer.
You are looking to use 30ml of ACV to make up a 500ml rinse (the rest preferably being cool distilled water). That’s a 6% solution. You don’t need more than that.
After washing your hair, you can rinse with the ACV solution, leaving it in for a few minutes before washing it out again (using cool water, since hot water will lift your cuticles reversing one of the desired effects of the ACV solution)
- or you have the choice of treating the ACV rinse as a leave in conditioner, leaving the ACV to work for that bit longer. As a side note, from my experience, if you decide to use the leave in route, the vinegary smell will disappear once your hair is dry.
So, what does this solution do for your hair?
The acidic pH balance will lower, or close the hair cuticle, sealing the shaft.
This then results in a smooth and shiny hair shaft, which helps to define curls.
Best of all, it aids in removing build-up from the hair and promotes a healthy scalp.
Simply Admirably Combined Value.
(I’m using that acronym as many times as I can. I worked too hard not to rinse it…..no pun intended!)
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